2018 Supersonic Touge Max! Time Attack - Round 1

Singapore - With its overwhelming success in 2017, Supersonic's Touge Max! Time Attack championship is now into its third year and the organisers have partnered with ACMA Engineering to rebrand the 2018 series as the ACMA Touge Max! Time Attack.

Round 1 was held at the Kuala Lumpur Elite Speedway - a new circuit for the series - on the 21st January 2018. Whilst everyone was relatively familiar with the Melaka International Motorsport Circuit (MIMC), the organisers upped the ante with a new challenging circuit to bring in new elements and challenges to further test and challenge the skills of the ever in increasing participants.

2017 Supersonic Touge Max! - Round One13 Jan 2017Into their second year of races, Supersonic Design and Performance, held the first round of their Touge Max! and 9tro was on-site to get in on all the action!

In the coming year, the Kuala Lumpur Elite Speedway will be used for Round 3 (May 2018) and Round 5 (September 2018) in both clockwise and the anticlockwise format - bringing a total of four track layouts to the series for the year.

Very few Singaporean drivers or trackies for that matter have had experience driving at the Kuala Lumpur Elite Speedway. Despite this, the organizers reached out to the community and all slots for Round 1 were fully taken up.

Starting slightly off schedule due to the further distance from Singapore and after the mandatory safety briefing, the first heats started smoothly and all the drivers were advised to go slow and learn the track before going all out.

With the experience gained from 2016 and 2017, the talent and skill level of the drivers translated to some amazing quick times right off the bat - that many did not expect.

Lance Chua with his Lotus Exige, pulling off some slides through corners in the wet

Unfortunately, second heats were disrupted by the rain and the time attack heats were suspended for safety reasons.

With the onset of rain that persisted beyond an hour, the organisers made the decision to conclude round one after just two heats to avoid participants from chasing lap times while risking their own safety. While its a shame, safety always take priority as much as the desire to go beyond limits.

Once again, the fastest lap of the day went to Shane Ang clocking 52.22 seconds.

Some participants brought up track tyres to ensure they make the best out of the day.

The next round will be help on 18th March 2018 at Melaka International Motorsports Circuit. Tune in to www.supersonicdp.com/tougemax for more details.